Coke County, Texas

Wiley Grosphener Byrd, Pioneer

Wiley Byrd told this account of his early life in Tom Green / Coke County as Eva Byrd made
this handwritten copy of this story during the winter of 1936.

Wiley and Eva Byrd moved in 1950
to Silverton, Texas to be near their daughters, Jessie Byrd McCracken and Della Byrd Word.
Wiley Byrd died September 19, 1953 and is buried in Silverton Texas Cemetery. Eva Nunn Byrd
died March 19, 1969 and is buried beside her husband in Silverton Texas Cemetery.
On September 26, 1971, the Coke County Historical Committee placed a Texas Historical
Grave Marker on James Franklin Byrd's grave honoring him as a Confederate Soldier and West Texas Pioneer.

On my ninth birthday, November 29, 1879, I came riding a horse into Tom Green County, now
Coke County, Texas. I, Wiley Grosphener Byrd, was born in Gonzales County, Texas, November
29, 1870 to JAMES FRANKLIN BYRD and his wife ELIZA ELIZABETH MAY BYRD. My father,
James F. Byrd, born December 18, 1844, in Carroll Co., Tennessee to John and Caroline Mills Byrd.
About 1850, Caroline Mills Byrd brought her three children and came to her parents, James and
Mary Duncan Mills in Gonzales County, Texas. James Mills was born 1802 in Tennessee;
Mary Duncan Mills was born 1804 in Virginia.

In 1879 my parents sold our home in Gonzales County, bought cows and calves at ten dollars per
cow and calf before we started west for free range, with the cattle, two negroes and my father and
me to drive the herd. A month before, my uncles and families left Gonzales County to go there.

A man who lived in Burnett County, Bill SIMS, decided to herd his cattle with ours. He also hired
a negro to help with the cattle drive. Bill was the boss of the herd from Gonzales County to Burnett
County where he cut out his cattle. The two negroes and I managed to herd the cattle the
remainder of the way from Burnett County to Tom Green County, north of San Angelo, now in
Coke County. My Father, who was in bad health, gave the orders, drove the ox-wagon pulled by two
yoke of steers, which was filled with our household goods. Mother drove a span of ponies pulling a
"Peter Shuttler Wagon" which we called the chuck wagon. I rode my horse to help with the cattle.

When we reached Mess Box Creek in Tom Green County (now Coke Co), with our 150 head of
cattle, we met up with two of my uncles who were camped there with their families and cattle.
They had come ahead just a month or so before us. There we stayed through the winter. One of
my uncles was JOHN GLOVER and his wife was ANNA BELLE BYRD GLOVER (my father's sister).
The following year (1880) Glover and his family moved back to Brown County. The other uncle,
ROBERT MELLARD and his wife Della MAY MELLARD (Della was my mother's sister) sold their
cattle in 1880 to a younger uncle of mine, William A. JOHNSON, a single man.

Without these uncles and their wives, my Mother, Father and I were the only ones of the family left in
Tom Green County and decided to build a house near a big pecan grove or mott on Mountain Creek,
five miles north of present day Robert Lee. Here we moved and located for life. During the 1880's
my Father's sister, Nannie Frances BYRD and her husband, Wylie T. CARAWAY came with their
family and settled near Hayrick.

At the time we reached Tom Green County, this was a fine country. Plenty of tall grass and
unsurveyed land here. You could just pick out your territory and claim it. In 1880, settling
at the Pecan Mott on Mountain Creek, we got our mail at Fort Chadbourne about once a month.
Fort Chadbourne was about 15 miles northeast of us. The nearest families were Jordan and Arminta
AUSTIN east of Sanco, the YARDLEY'S who lived in a canyon near Nipple Peak, a round mountain
about four miles west of the Fort. The BAW Ranch was southwest of us on the Colorado River, about three
miles west of Robert Lee. There were cowboys there, but I never saw a Mr. Baw. Later it was sold
to L.B. HARRIS. They were our nearest neighbors for a while.

When we were coming into this area in 1879, there was not a pasture between here and Austin.
The nearest railroad was Abilene, and it was a terminal of the Texas and Pacific Railroad Co.
San Angelo was then known as Fort Concho and had lots of soldiers stationed there to protect
us newcomers from the Indians. We did some of our trading at Fort Concho and some at Abilene.

When we arrived here this country was alive with antelope, which ran in herds of 25 to 75. You could
see several herds any day you rode out. There were many wild turkeys on Mountain Creek; as a
rule when a roost would be found there would be from 75 to 200. There were also herds of deer.

The Colorado River was much deeper than it is now and had lots of fish in it. We caught all the fish
we wanted in an hour or less, any evening. Mountain and Yellow Wolf Creeks were running
streams and they had lots of small fish in them. Other animals were wolves, prairie dogs and
snakes. There were a few Mexican lions, bears and panthers. The buffalo and the Indians left
the year before we came.

In the Fall of 1883 we saw this county had been over stocked and my Father knew our cattle
would die that winter without food. So we gathered the cattle, about 150, and started
herding them west for grass. We drove them to the line of New Mexico and turned them loose on
NEWMAN's Ranch and returned home. Our cattle wintered there managed by Jim Newman and
Taylor. Most all of the other peoples stock died here during the winter. I had worked cattle all
over this county and adjoining counties before we moved our cattle to New Mexico that winter.
The year I was fourteen I took ten saddle horses and went to Newman's Ranch to work our
cattle. Newman's Ranch was about 12 miles from Portales, New Mexico. At that time there were
a few small ranches of some kind, 40 or 50 miles apart, on the old trail from here to Portales.
I worked for Newman for five seasons and wintered in Coke County which was Tom Green Co.
at that time. There were plenty of antelope and mustang horses on the plains at that time,
but not a town or a farm on the plains above the caprock at the time I was working there.

On this old trail I mentioned that led on into Arizona, there were some real outlaws who made their living
on that trail delivering stolen horses to one another. Back and forth they rode this trail. Luckily,
they never bothered our ranch horses. Some real outlaws, using fictitious names worked on some
of those ranches. They did not stand back in telling us boys they were toughs and they would be
hanged if the law had it's way. These men made good cow handlers. They seemed to always be
on the look out and in dread. They advised us boys, who were not in trouble, to stay out of all
trouble. Some of the boys would have fought a bunch of Texas Rangers before they would have
given up anyone in their outfit. That was done at two different time when the Rangers tried to make
arrests, which I know of and no arrests were made. I was not with either outfit at the time and was
just in my teens. I do not know what became of the officers but they never made any arrest. I knew
it would be dangerous for an officer to stick his head up out there. It was considered a darned sorry
outfit that would not fight for their own bunch. So we all stuck together like brothers and had all the
fun we could under the circumstances. If one of these toughs broke the rules, and there were rules,
spoken and unspoken, we wore him out with a six-shooter belt or a boot leg. It was all right with him
as soon as it quit hurting. He considered his friends did the job.

During the five years that I was cowboying on the Plains, there were only three or four families that I
knew of. There was a man by the name of SINGER, with a wife. They ran a store and Post Office:
the name of the Post Office was Lubbock. Mr. Singer's two nearest customers were on the trail.
The mail came in once a month. The most of the time there was a family living at Yellow Houses,
the headquarters ranch of the Syndicate Ranches. Dave Taylor and wife with two small children
lived at White Lakes, about twenty miles northwest of Lubbock Post Office. Old man Cage Stone
and family lived on a creek four miles south of Portales, NM. During the time I was working our
cattle on Newman's Ranch we got our mail at Yellow House Ranch once a month unless we were
off on a round-up.

Our cattle scattered over quite a lot of the plains south to the Pecos River, one hundred twenty
five miles. Our groceries and freight came from Colorado City and Sweetwater. We measured
miles then by the strength of a saddle pony. We called it 250 miles from Colorado City to the line
of New Mexico. We shipped our beef cattle from Colorado City. We would bring down Newman's
steers, three or four hundred, four year old steers each fall to ship. These steers grew on the plains
and were the largest ones I have ever seen. In those days they netted less than $40.00 a head. He
paid his men in those days $30.00 a month and that was high wages. I worked on the DZ Ranch,
a few months, but drew no wages. I worked my own cattle with him. I mounted myself with ten
saddle horses. Believe me, we rode our horses, sometimes day and night.

After herding our cattle on the plains five years, I had built them to a nice bunch of cattle.
My Father's brand was BYRD and my brand was: diamond A diamond.
By 1891 my Father and I closed out our interest in the cattle to Delaney Brothers at Sweetwater.

My Father went into the Mercantile business and went broke. It ended in a lawsuit which broke him.
After lawyer's fees and all expenses were paid I got out with $1400 cash. I was under eighteen.
By that time I had sown some wild oats and had never handled much money. So I placed $1000
in the Colorado City Bank and put $400 in a checkbook in my pocket. I figured I was pretty well
hooked up. Money was scarce those days and whiskey was plentiful and cheap. I mounted
Brownie, my favorite saddle horse and started home, I supposed to finish the job. At any rate I was
broke before I was 21. Whiskey had caused (cost) me about all the trouble and hard work I had had up to
that time. It deprived me of an education and society. I decided to get married when I found a
beautiful girl, Eva Wrice NUNN, daughter of Thomas M. and Isabelle Conger Nunn. We were
married January 15, 1891, at their home on Kickapoo Creek near Bronte. Eva had come by wagon
train with her parents in 1888 from the state of Oregon so her father could have a school to teach in.
I had a hard time stopping drinking because whiskey was plentiful with open saloons and most of all
my associates were drinking. Well, I just kept trying to quit and with the help of the Almighty Power
and Eva, I quit. We lived with my folks until we made claim on a section of school land.

Settling down meant I bought 400 head of good young sheep at $4 a head from Bob HAMILTON.
I had to put up every thing I had including my buggy and team. Didn't have a blooming thing left but
my horse and saddle and my wife. I had handled cattle all my life and I hated a sheep. But Uncle
Wiley CARAWAY talked me into buying them as that would be the fastest way to make some
money. I had free range and herded them myself. They stayed around $1.00 a head for about three
years. In six years I had 1000 sheep and had been selling fat mutton for $1.25 a head and wool for
4 to 5 cents a pound. In six years sheep went back up to $2 a head. I sold out, paid all my debts
and had $1,440 left. We know there is money in sheep these days, but boys you can have the
sheep. I understand cattle and how to tend them.

The free range played out. In fact we never had any range. As long as it was "free range" that was
the trouble. I herded those sheep all over this country and to the Double Mountains fork of the
Brazos and back, hunting free range with grass on it. There was very little grass to graze on.

You can all talk about a man should have made money in an early day. My wife and I experienced
that time. If we had to make another stake we would choose these times and prices to make it
in now, than in the early days (before 1900). When I sold my sheep I took the check to the First
National Bank of San Angelo for deposit. I told old man George WEBB I was on my way to Llano
County to buy cattle as I had a letter from a friend down there saying I could buy good stock cattle
for $10-12 a head. I asked George Webb if I could make arrangements with him at the bank to get
more money. He said he didn't think that I could buy cattle at that price, as they were about $15 a
head here. He asked me if I knew what a good cow was. I told him I had handled cattle from
Gonzales County to the New Mexico line and if I knew anything, it was a cow. I had handled them
since I was nine years old excepting six years I was in the sheep business. He remarked, "well,
if you have been in the sheep business the past six years, you are a stay-er, so go ahead, when
you use up your money on good cattle at $14 a head you may draw on this bank for $700 more."
So when I reached Pack Saddle Mountain, fourteen miles below Llano town, the roughest, rocky
country, I bought 101 head of good cattle in one bunch at $12 a head. I then bought another 70
head at $10 a head and herded them back to Coke County. They had a drought on down there.

Now I had a claim on a section of school land on Indian Creek, south of Hayrick. I leased two
more sections of land and fenced them in. Dug a well and put up a windmill and I don't want any
more free range. I began to farm a little. Eva and I planted a garden and had chickens. I have lived
peaceably at home every since quitting the range riding.

The winter I rustled my sheep on the Double Mountains trying to keep them alive as they were all
we had, I left my wife and baby with my parents. When I left for Llano to buy cattle, I left my wife
and three small ones on our claim on Indian Creek to hold possession. I returned in about six
weeks. Our nearest neighbors were about a mile away.

The first five years I was married we lived with my parents. Then in January 1895 we moved to
Indian Creek. We later bought the School section of land we located on from the State. We later
bought a section of Railroad Land joining on the west.

My Father died July 9, 1915 and was buried in Hayrick Cemetery, Coke County, Texas. He served
in the Confederate Army. In January 1929 we sold some land to Walker McCutchen because we
had built a house in Robert Lee a few years before so the children could live near school. We were
living on my Mother's place on Mountain Creek as she was frail, later fell and broke her hip. We
have lands joining my Mother's and run some cattle which we hope to never have to give up. Mother
died May 7, 1929 and is buried in Hayrick Cemetery beside my Father.